1. Field of the Invention
This specification relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, an apparatus for optimizing cooling capacity of a compressor based on heat load within a refrigerator, and a method for controlling the same.
2. Background of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for executing a refrigerant collecting operation in a refrigerator, and a method for controlling the same, and more particularly, an apparatus and method for collecting a remnant refrigerant within at least one evaporator of a refrigerator, in which at least one compressor and the at least one evaporator form a refrigeration cycle.
In general, a refrigerant of low temperature flows through an evaporator of a refrigerator. During this, air around the evaporator changes into cold air of low temperature due to heat-exchange with the refrigerant of the low temperature flowing through the inside of the evaporator. The cold air of the low temperature is supplied into a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber to execute a cooling function and then introduced back into the evaporator. Such circulation is repetitively executed. That is, the refrigerator is an apparatus of keeping an inside thereof at low temperature by using a refrigeration cycle device including a compressor, a condenser, an expansion apparatus and an evaporator.
Specifically, a controller of the refrigerator executes a load match operation by controlling an operation of the compressor based on a preset cooling capacity map. However, the conventional cooling capacity map is designed in a fixed manner according to notches of a refrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber and external air temperature. That is, the conventional method of executing the load match operation requires to set a cooling capacity map separately for each refrigerator model.
Also, in the control method for the refrigerator executing the load match operation based on the fixed cooling map, an optimized refrigerant collecting operation cannot be executed for a compressor having a different functionality for each refrigerant model, which results in excessive power consumption.